Norbez's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lizard Man]

The arrow keys & movement animation felt smooth, but the jump controls felt very finicky, unsure whether to jump high or not. This made the platforming quite difficult and somewhat frustrating. You have, however, created quite an atmosphere with this. From the opening animation to the background "music", the atmosphere is creepy and solid.
I stopped jumping to write this review, and got the "congratulations" screen. I guess that's a game over? Very odd . . .
As a fellow jam entrant, I must ask, how is this about deception. I couldn't really finish, so is there more to the story later that ties in this theme?

UrnSudden responds:

Is it regarding the crouch to high-jump thing? When I'd initially tried to set it up in "open-eye state", the animation wouldn't trigger because of a boundary box malfunction, and I couldn't for the life of me find out why, so I'd decided to lemonade, haha. The high-jump only works while you're in "closed-eye state". The platforming was intentionally frustrating, and the last level is unbeatable, so that when you're like "THERE'S NO PROPER END? I HATE YOU AH!" and you scroll down to tell me that (I banked on 90 seconds being a healthy time without input), and find out that you were hindering your win-state the whole time by progressing through the levels. Multi-layered deception-- Deceiving the player twice. Once with the game description, and once with the presumption that there's a conventional win-state.

Edit::
I see what you mean with the high jump being weird--I made this with the free edition, so I couldn't put a break in the "or" blocks of the event sheet where the gamepad would be used--that may be the issue, I'm not sure.

[squirrels vs zombies]

Aside from the fact that it's a Plants vs Zombies ripoff, this isn't a good game. Everything feels very slow, the art doesn't really pop, sound only appears when it feels like it, and the gameplay-- well, is a ripoff. Not even trying to teach me how to play, just hint-hinting me with ads. A very bad addition to the deception jam.

[40in40book - Match Face Game]

Took me a few tries to figure out what exactly I need to do in the game. Its pretty challenging, but kinda gets repetitive once you get the hang of it. Some music in the background would be nice, and since faces come from all four sides, how about having a :) and :( on the left and right, too? Maybe make different faces as the game goes on? Also, thank you for both touchscreen and keyboard functionality.
And I cannot see how this is a deception-jam game.

40in40book responds:

@Norbez
Sorry for the late reply

> Took me a few tries to figure out what exactly I need to do in the game.
Yes, we didn't really explain ourselves well :) We'll update the start screen to explain it better.

> Its pretty challenging
Thanks.

> Some music in the background would be nice,
Noted.

> and since faces come from all four sides, how about having a :) and :( on the left and right, too?
If you click on above, below, left or right on the screen it rotates directly, you do not have to rotate it around clockwise or anticlockwise.

> but kinda gets repetitive once you get the hang of it.
> Maybe make different faces as the game goes on?
We had been thinking the same, but had time constraints.
Besides this, do you have any other suggestions?

> Also, thank you for both touchscreen and keyboard functionality.
The intended distribution of all our games will be to be cross-platform and on as many platforms as practically possible.

> And I cannot see how this is a deception-jam game.
Conventional wisdom is to diet and exercise to lose weight, Richard lost the 40kg in 40 weeks without exercise, just by eating less.
So the deception part is to reveal that conventional wisdom for weight loss has been deceiving everyone ;)
Deep we know :D

[Deception Entertainament System]

The lack of sound is a big minus in this game. Not just music, but sound effects, indicating when I've jumped & stuff like that. A lot of people commented on the color, and I think it's alright. The red MC is fine, but using only shades of red &green makes things blend, and doesn't give a varied color experience. Also, the fact that everything is square & a grid is hard on the eyes.

The checkerboard squares killing me is confusing, not properly explained, and unexpected. Depict 1 subverted this well with spikes being helpful, by using the dialogue & level design to reinforce this, making sure this was something the player understood. The checkerboard squares are confusing because I don't expect checkerboard squares to kill me, and isn't explained properly to do so. I suppose you may have done this as part of the deception theme, but feeling deceived and feeling cheated are not quite the same.

About the other squares, what do they do? I collected one at the beginning, but is it a power up? A coin? Again, a sound effect here would help greatly to define what I have picked up. The end of the game mentioned nothing about them, so I see no purpose in them. Could you explain?

When I turn left or right, I also move a bit to the left or right. This is not helpful. Also, I did experience a few glitches, hovering a bit below a platform once, and completely disappearing at the end of some platforms (mainly the see-through ones). Also, some sections are too small to accommodate for the MC's high jump, especially with the box placement; jumping over them causes me to hit the ceiling and fall right into them.

The load makes things a lot easier, I must say, but it was not made clear that it was an autosave function, and I didn't have any idea until my third restart.

Good on you, using different color boxes to indicate the end of the game. However, the deception theme is nowhere (and cheating the player doesn't count), and the "interaction" you claimed in the description was very limited.

Nsuperrata responds:

"The checkerboard squares killing me is confusing, not properly explained, and unexpected. Depict 1 subverted this well with spikes being helpful, by using the dialogue & level design to reinforce this, making sure this was something the player understood. The checkerboard squares are confusing because I don't expect checkerboard squares to kill me, and isn't explained properly to do so. I suppose you may have done this as part of the deception theme, but feeling deceived and feeling cheated are not quite the same.
About the other squares, what do they do? I collected one at the beginning, but is it a power up? A coin? Again, a sound effect here would help greatly to define what I have picked up. The end of the game mentioned nothing about them, so I see no purpose in them. Could you explain?"
You didn't understand that the theme of the game is Deception and I used a gameplay based in trail and error,did you?

[Dig Bunny & Clyde Dug]

Nice job making it multilingual & touchscreen supportive! But whenever I go to the bottom square to the tunnel, nothing happens. :( I thought I was supposed to pass the carrot off to Clyde, but I just sit there & die when time runs out . . .

kingpirux responds:

Im sorry! i forgot to say that you must release the carrot :) just touch the bunny and he will drop it :D

[Legend of the Lost]

Well, I suppose I was "deceived" into playing a game that claimed to be deeper than it actually was. And by deceived, I mean completely tricked. I understand that you're relishing in the bad reviews, but this was just truly disappointing. Two seconds of gameplay followed by some text, with gameplay that in no way matched the metaphors in the description. I'm not playing a really bad game anymore; I'm watching I really bad movie. With typos!
As a fellow C2 Jam entrant, I expected way more. It's kinda if I asked for a chicken wing, but you give me a frail, skinny scrap of bone that was barely edible. And then told me, "It's not my fault, *you* expected a chicken wing!" No, because you made me think that was what I was truly getting. No thanks.

[The Cosmonaut]

I read the reviews by Fubaka and Clonedefender before I played this. As a distraction, this game succeeds on almost every level. Jumping too high and dying was frustrating, though. And the giant triangle cursor is completely unnecessary, blocking your view at times.
As a deception jam game, it fails spectacularly. And "deceiving" the player into thinking they're getting something good doesn't count. It actually makes me pretty ticked off, and gives the impression that you game no thought to the theme whatsoever, since this was previously published. I actually thought our jam games could have common ground, since the both feature an astronaut & are in space from the thumbnails, but no. They are very different.

igdauksa responds:

Thank you for your detailed review!

[Dark Mega]

Why did I die when hitting a red guy? It he a hacker? Has this game tried to turn into a stealth experience, where I must avoid them (which is impossible in the narrow office)? And how to people turn red; do they turn by using red computers? Are they computer virus zombies???
Anyway, I think this is . . . alright. The map is huge, and I have a feeling you made the MC run fast to make up for that. Good on you, but it still isn't enough. Maybe when a CPU goes red, make a screen flash and have a giant arrow leading me in the right direction. Or a minimap at the bottom of the screen that shows where every CPU is and when one goes red. Or an assistant NPC who leads me in the right direction. Or simply an annoying alarm. Just something to help me know when a computer's red, other than stumbling across it.
Also, the stairs contribute to the difficulty to reach a computer. The stairs can be far away from my destination, and I need to jump from them multiple times (from a rather high point on the stairs, for that matter) to reach it. And I have fixed zero computers so far, because I have stood in front of those red screen and held down Z, but it shows no indication of being fixed, still flashing red as I step away helplessly.
Two more things: the MC looks like everyone else, and that's kinda a problem. On my first playthrough, I was staring at a man in a black suit, wondering why he wouldn't move on my command, then looked up and realized I was a different man in a black suit. Especially in a game where you die by running into red-head virus people, it's important that the MC can be distinguished from the other characters.
Finally, the deception theme. Sadly, I did not see a trace of it. Let me be frank: it feels like you made this game, realized the theme wasn't there, and just threw in some text to make us think it's about deception. Well, it doesn't feel like deception at all. Maybe if every time you fixed a computer, you extracted some mysterious files that talk about the firm's downfall and tell more about the hacker threat (some lost e-mail, a meeting transcript, etc.). Maybe the twist could be that the firm hired the hackers to get rid of their secrets, and you just happen to be in the line of fire.
The deception theme could spread to the red-head virus as well. Maybe if one person is red, but doesn't show it, but you know there's a threat in the company based on your information. By hacking the computers, you find them before they find you (which would actually make keeping the MC's black suit to your advantage, so he looks like everyone else to divert the threat). Just some ideas.
As a fellow entrant in ths C2 Jam, I nod at your effort, but I feel a lot more could have been done to this, on many fronts.

[Slime Rampage]

The story is good, and presented well. The slime animation is smooth, and I like the art, but it makes me a bit sad that you used open source art. (I like seeing custom art, that's all! :D) The gameplay is addicting, but the random hero drop made some challenges nearly impossible. I didn't even know I could attack until my friend pointed out the button in the bottom-right! And I didn't know that right-arrow was attack until I literally just looked up at the game!
The win conditions make me sad. "Make a score of thirty to win"? I haven't "won" yet, but that kinda reduces the story to me. I think this would be the type of game as a endless runner-thing, with online high scores. Maybe you could have achievements in the future for reaching a certain number, or a "pacifist" achievement for jumping over a certain number of heroes? Just some ideas.
I also applaud your efforts to make the game touchscreen-friendly; I'm trying to do that with my C2 Jam entry now, and it's nice to see you succeeded! Also, I didn't encounter any bugs during my playthrough (at least, none I'm aware of).

RyuuseiGames responds:

Thank you Norbez. Glad to read that. We will be adjusting this game in a near future and your suggestions are very cool. Thanks again!

[Sugar, sugar 3]

Man, I've always loved playing the "sugar, sugar" games. There's something really relaxing about them, and the mechanics have always been great, though similar throughout. (I recognize some past mechanics from previous installments, not that there's something particularly wrong with that.)
However, I think the inclusion of an eraser would be a nice mechanic, to help fix our mistakes. Other than that, love this game!